“An Assessment of Planar Waves” provides background on some of the history of planar waves, which are time-dependent variations of inlet recovery, as well as establishing a hierarchy for categorizing various types of planar waves. It further identifies approaches for establishing compression-component and engine sensitivities to planar waves, and methods for accounting for the destabilizing effects of planar waves. This document contains an extensive list and categorization (see Appendix A) of references to aid both the newcomer and the practitioner on this subject.